Over the decades, digital voice recorder companies have constantly received feedback from the professional or serious users of their products. As time has become an increasingly expensive commodity, transcription needs have soared. And with that, the demand on high-end brands, like Olympus digital voice recorders, is to deliver ever more accurate transcription abilities.
What Supports Transcription Accuracy?
Transcription, very much like computer software, works on a GIGO principle: garbage in garbage out. Poor quality audio equals poor quality transcription regardless of whether the output is via speech recognition software or a human typing or a crossover of both.
The more readily a word can be comprehended by a human or A.I., the more accurate the output. The extra investment into equipment like Olympus digital voice recorders versus mass-market digital voice recorders will save you money in the long term.
What Components Or Software Needs To Be Assessed?
If you want to choose the best digital voice recorder to meet your transcription needs, it is prudent to assess the quality of the microphone technology and hardware, as well as the supporting software.
Microphones
With a high-end brand like Olympus, they install dual microphones in their digital voice recorders. Their professional recorders are supplied with bigger, superior quality microphones and cutting-edge technology. Their DS-9500, for example, comes with dual microphones that proactively manage the directionality of the sound, i.e. it can pick up whether there is one noise from one direction or multiple noises from multiple directions. Therefore, it will accurately focus on any person speaking.
Software
With cutting-edge technological hardware, you need cutting-edge software. A good recording system will extract the human voice sound range and reduce superfluous noise like the wind or general white noise. Olympus uses a triple-layer “pop filter” that will filter out any breathiness of the speaker’s voice or vibrations from the wind. Whether you are recording in a foyer, airport, car or office, their software and hardware will pinpoint the important audio and deliver a file that will increase transcription accuracy.
Do Bitrates And Formats Matter?
In the music industry, sound quality is of a do-or-die nature. They have extreme needs when it comes to bitrates. They refer to sampling, i.e. the frequency per second of capturing audio. They also look at bit depth, which is the density of bits captured with each sample.
The dictation industry has far lesser needs than the music industry, even at its highest levels. You should expect between 16-24 bits per sample from high-end equipment like Olympus digital voice recorders.
File formats affect file size which, in turn, affects the number of files per your device’s storage space. Professional equipment should offer diverse formats, such as DSS and DSS Pro (tiny size files), high-quality MP3 or PCM formats. The latter two produce bigger files, with PCM being about 10MB per minute.
We hope this shows you that high-end, professional equipment will give you a much better transcription experience – hands down.
Get your transcriptions flying and choose from our Olympus digital voice recorders here.